iTelliHashCSV – Protect Sensitive & Private Information

iTelliHashCSV

iTelliHashCSV is a cryptographic “one-way” hashing application designed to securely protect sensitive or private information from disclosure. Proper use of this program allows organizations, businesses, and individuals (i.e., the data owners) to share complete/intact datasets containing sensitive data with others without actually disclosing the sensitive or private information. Additionally, if such datasets are subsequently modified or enhanced through value-added services or products provided by other organizations or individuals and then returned, the data owner retains the ability to “re-map” the hashed sensitive data values back to their original values.

You wish to share your data with other organizations or individuals; however, your data contains private or sensitive information that is infeasible or too costly in terms of effort or money to remove prior to sharing.

Use of Online Data Processing Services or Products...

You desire to use online data processing services or products but are unable or unwilling to do so since it would either require you to first redact the private or sensitive data before uploading the data set or require you to risk disclosure of the sensitive information.

Your Data Contains Personally Identifiable Information (PII)...

Full name (if not common)
Home address
Email address (if private from an association/club membership, etc.)
National identification number
Passport number
IP address (when linked, but not PII by itself in US)
Vehicle registration plate number
Driver’s license number
Credit card numbers
Digital identity
Date of birth
Birthplace
Genetic information
Telephone number
Login name, screen name, nickname, or handle

Qlik Sense Desktop

Qlik Sense Desktop is a market leading business intelligence and analytics platform aimed at non-technical users. Information about this free Microsoft Windows application can be found at Qlik.com. Also, the 2017 Gartner report on business intelligence and analytics platforms showing Qlik as a market leader can be downloaded using this link.

In this example we assume that the original Northwinds data represented your customers and employees. You likely wouldn’t want to disclose their detailed information (names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) to anyone outside your organization. However, you desire to use online data processing services or products but up to now you have been unable or unwilling to do so since it would require you to first redact this sensitive data before uploading the data set or require you to risk disclosure of the sensitive information.

Assume that you became aware of iTelliHashCSV and purchased it to allow you to securely share these sensitive data elements with others. Further assume that you chose iTelligent LLC to assist you in developing a Sales Analysis Dashboard from your Northwinds data and that your transmitted your protected Northwinds dataset to iTelligent LLC at the beginning of the project.

Please download and refer to the referenced Powerpoint presentation and Qlik Sense Desktop applications for further information.

CSV is a “workhorse” data exchange format that is widely supported by consumer, business, and scientific computer applications. Among its most common uses is moving tabular data between programs that natively operate on incompatible (often proprietary and/or undocumented) formats. This works despite lack of adherence to any specific standard because so many programs support variations on the CSV format for data export and import. For example, a user may need to transfer information from a database program that stores data in a proprietary format to a spreadsheet that uses a completely different format. The database program most likely can export its data as “CSV” and the exported CSV file can then be imported by the spreadsheet program. For these reasons and as detailed below, iTelliHashCSV is a more robust and broadly applicable product than iTelliHashExcel. Yet, if you only work with Excel files you may wish to use iTelliHashExcel. Keep in mind, however, that Excel can export and import CSV files… for this reason you could still choose to use iTelliHashCSV.

No. Due to limitations associated with Excel, sensitive data column(s) within the chosen input spreadsheet and sheet are reproduced in the output file. Before securely sharing the output the user must:

Create a copy of the original “Hashed_” iTelliHashExcel output file and open it in Excel

For each sensitive data field/column processed, use the Excel VLOOKUP function to pull the corresponding hashed values into new columns

Delete the original plaintext columns and the hashed columns mapping sheets, save, and share the file -OR- delete the original plaintext columns then save the resultant sheet to a new spreadsheet and then share

iTelligent, LLC was founded by Kirby Davis, who also serves as President and CEO of the company. Via our software and services, we assist organizations and individuals in protecting their data and maximizing the value of their information technology data assets. We have over 30 years experience in assessing business operations, auditing information security controls, and finding innovative ways to better utilize and derive value from computerized data. Our office is located in east Tennessee, near the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Can we entrust you and your products with our data?

Yes. One of our primary concerns and goals is the protection of your sensitive computerized data. Our two software products, iTelliHashCSV and iTelliHashExcel, were designed to give you the ability to protect and retain your sensitive data in-house yet at the same time share a cryptographically hashed version of such data with other organizations and businesses if so desired. If you decide to use our services at some point then you can rest assured that your sensitive data has been protected from disclosure.

Is using iTelliHashCSV safe?

Absolutely! Since this program is intended to protect sensitive information through cryptographic hashing, it DOES NOT communicate in any way with any other programs on your computer or with any other external programs, computers, or websites.

What is Cryptographic Hashing?

According to Wikipedia, a cryptographic hash function is a mathematical algorithm that maps data of arbitrary size to a bit string of a fixed size (a hash function) which is designed to also be a one-way function, that is, a function which is infeasible to invert.

Input files must be comma-delimited text files and contain column/field header names in the first row. Columns/fields may be enclosed by double quotes. iTelliHashCSV expects input file names ending in .txt or .csv

iTelliHashCSV will create three types of files in either the same directory as the selected CSV input file(s) or a directory of the user’s choosing:

A composite ‘mapping’ file containing the hashes and original/plaintext forms of all fields selected to be hashed. This file will be named Hash_MapFile_<selected hash format>. This file will contain the hash (column name = Hashvalue), original (column name = Plaintext), and field name (column name = FieldName) of each distinct value of all hashed fields in the original CSV file(s).

A separate mapping file for every field selected to be hashed. These files will be named <Field Name>_MapFile_<selected hash format>. These files will contain the hash (column name = <Field Name>) and original/plaintext (column name = <Field Name>_Plaintext) form of each distinct value found in the selected field. These files will allow field values to be mapped between their hashed and original/plaintext formats.

The original CSV input file(s) with the selected fields hashed. The filename(s) will be named Hashed_<Original CSV File Name>_<selected hash format>

iTelliHashCSV or iTelliHashExcel? Which do I need?

It really depends upon your specific data needs. For large data sets consisting of many records and fields we would strongly recommend that you use iTelliHashCSV for the following reasons:

iTelliHashCSV is much faster and more robust than iTelliHashExcel due to various limitations imposed by Excel.

iTelliHashCSV is able to process multiple input files while iTelliHashExcel is only able to process one input file at a time.

Is there a community site where I can discuss iTelliHashCSV with others?